Five Million Dollar Life (JP) (review)
As a child, Mirai survived life-saving surgery and due to the regular 7up style TV shows charting his progress, he isn't allowed to forget it. Interpreting the constant intrusions by the media on his life, and his mothers' reluctance to move on from that period as a weighty noose around his neck, he finds the increasingly intrusive expectations of others on his life to be suffocating, and at this crucial point in his life where he is about to graduate and move into the big wide world, it's unbearable. He considers the worst of ways out to be the only solution; ending it all.
Hecklers on the internet agree, but before they will let him take the easy way out, he has to earn back the money it cost to save his life. Accepting the terms, desperate for a resolution, the size of the task ahead of him becomes apparent. Mirai is smart enough but constantly being coddled has left him workshy and wet behind the ears. Naively he leaves home and looks for ways to make some money.
Ghost Tropic yesterday treaded some familiar ground, the idea of a stranger passing through strange lands and bouncing off the people he meets. Whereas that film was gentler and more positive about the shadows lurking in the night, Five Million Dollar Life stalks much darker terretory. Mirai is sent on a trial by fire and has to learn to make good use of the parse resources avalable to him. Director Sungho Moon tries hard to avoid the dip in the middle of the film as Mirai moves between a parade of good and not so good characters on his way to the third act and generally succeeds, but the film could maybe done with being a little shorter. 7.5/10
Shooting the Mafia (IR) (review)
I will never look casually at those romanticized charactures of the Mafia we see on the TV and in films again after seeing this documentary. You know the sort of thing I mean: comedy cartoon pigeons doing Godfather accents for the kids on Saturday mornings. These people were terrorists of the most violent and bloodthirsty kind and subjected Italy to decades of rule by fear. Because they were dapper and Italian (and possibly also because they were white), the Mafia gangster has been romanticized and comedified and packaged into something much more cozy and acceptable for our entertainment. I doubt that we will see ISIS given similar cartoon treatment in twenty or so years time.
Journalust turned Photographer turned Politician Letizia Battaglia has spent a long time photgraphing the aftermath of revenge killings by the all-powerful Mafia through Italy from the 1970's into the new millennium. This is the story of how she managed against the odds to not be one of the victims.
There were a lot of killings, and Battaglia and her small team of brave journalists were there, catching leads over the police radio and snapping the gruesome scenes before they could be cleaned away. Be warned, you will spend a lot of this film staring at photos of dead bodies.
That isn't to say this film is unbearable; if you can stomach the relentless shots of violent retribution of actual people, this documentary is also two other things; a biography of Battalglia herself, including many of her partners, admirers and lovers, and a timeline of how Italy slowly, finally loosed itself from the terrible grip that the Mafia families had on Italian society for so long. The film was at turns disturbing, thrilling, celebratory and strangely beautiful and is exactly the sort of documentary film that really gets me coming to these festivals. 8.5/10
One Last Deal (FI) (wiki)
The art world as with many others is feeling the squeeze of the modern age, put out of business by the relentless reach of the faster, more convenient Internet. Olavi is at the end of his art dealer career and though his discoveries have never earned him more than a meagre existence things are getting tighter still and the end of the road is looking near.
But then he spots what looks to be a valuable painting at the back of an auction house; seemingly unnoticed by anyone else. All he needs to do is pay the lofty auction price, and then find someone to sell it on to and he can show them all he had what it took to pull off the big time. Aided somewhat by his clumsy grandson, and not so much by his daughter whose cold exterior is justified by her years played second fiddle to Olavi's art business, he tries to come up with the goods before time runs out.
One Last Deal isn't going to give any big twists or surprises but it does have a tense rabble of characters and a distinct 'baddie' of sorts to get you rooting for the right result. It was well acted and beautiully shot, and very enjoyable. 7.5/10
Common Threads (Various)
A short film segment around the idea of shared human experiences.
After the Silence (BE)
A young middle-eastern asylum seeker talks about their experiences of applying for asylum, and their circumstances for leaving. David is gay and came to Belgium in the hope of a better life. A poingient reminder of human need and why we should not be raising the drawbridge. 8/10
The Sea Runs Thru My Veins (DE)
Various people talk about what happiness means to them, illustrated by various abstract Super-8 films. An abstract, though pleasant meditation of what it means to be happy. 7/10
Blue Boy (DE)
The facial reactions of several male prostitutes are one at a time presented as they watch video of a previous recording of them in various conversations with punters: making sexy chit-chat for prostitution money, being raided by the police without cause, a failed relationship, all in the titular german gay bar. An unusual way of presenting it and although the lingering shots long after the recordings had finished (and before they started) irked a bit, it was quite sweet. 7/10
Reality Baby (IE)
A group of teenage mums (and one very awkward looking dad!) to be are given a realistic baby to nurse and deal with to prepare them for motherhood. The community centre trialling it uses them to give them a realistic view of how their world will utterly change in ways that words never will. The only problem was the almost incomprehensible audio but that might have been the room to blame. 7/10
And What is the Summer Saying? (IN)
A strange film about a remote family dwelling in the Indian countryside. Nonsensical and unconnected ramblings roll over a series of loose family scenes and portraits of nature, and something about a tiger. Far too ambiguous and abstract for my liking. 4/10
Never Actually Lost (GB)
The director's elderly grandmother Audrey takes us on a journey through her old photos and cinefilm captures of her children, long before the director came on the scene, knowing that these moments should be communicated over as there is not much time left. Genuinely touching and sensitive. 8/10
Ordinary Love (GB) (review)
Liam Neeson needed something to draw a line under recent events, playing a very ordinary husband Tom to Lesley Manville's equally ordinary wife, Joan. They live a very ordinary but contented existence until Joan notices a lump on her breast. What follows is a study in how a relationship bends and strains under the weight of cancer, and anyone touched by the illness or close to someone who did may find this film quite unbearable to watch in places, as it examines the various stages of discovery, diagnosis, treatment and recovery with great skill by two very accomplished actors giving strong, emotional performances. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. 8.5/10
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